ISTANBUL

The Palestinian group Hamas said Saturday that it is ready to recover the remains of all Israeli hostages inside the “yellow line” in Gaza, calling on mediators and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to provide the needed machinery to accelerate the process.

The “yellow line” refers to the zone to which Israeli forces have withdrawn under the ceasefire agreement that took effect on Oct. 10. It is a non-physical partition that runs through the Gaza Strip, dividing the Palestinian territory in half, south of Gaza City and north of Khan Younis.

In a statement, the group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said its teams “are ready to work on extracting the bodies of (Israeli) enemy prisoners inside the yellow line at the same time and in all places, in order to close this file.”

It called on mediators and the Red Cross “to provide and equip the necessary machinery and teams to retrieve all the bodies at the same time,” framing the request as a step toward ending the dispute over the fate of the hostage remains.

Hamas also said it delivered three unidentified bodies on Friday after Israel refused to take samples of the remains and insisted on receiving the full bodies for forensic testing. The group said it handed them over anyway “to block the (Israeli) enemy’s claims” and prevent delays in the transfer process.

Israeli media reported Saturday that the remains of the three people handed over by Hamas do not belong to Israeli hostages.

Since the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire agreement began on Oct. 10, Hamas has released 20 Israeli captives alive and handed over the remains of 19 out of 28, most of them Israelis. However, Israel claimed that one of the received bodies did not match any of its listed captives.

Israel has killed 211 Palestinians and injured 597 others since the ceasefire, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israel has tied the start of negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire to the handover of all the hostage remains. Hamas says the process requires time due to the massive destruction in Gaza.

Phase one of the deal includes the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The plan also envisages the rebuilding of Gaza and the establishment of a new governing mechanism without Hamas.

Israel has killed more than 68,500 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 170,600 others in attacks in Gaza since October 2023.